Even though Star Wars: The Phantom Menace only gave Darth Maul a total of 15 minutes of screen time and a handful of lines (which were delivered by Guardians of the Galaxy star Peter Serafinowicz instead of on-screen actor Ray Park), he is one of the favorite villains of the entire sci-fi saga. The villain may have met his demise in the movie, but he went on to live with the help of mechanical enhancements in The Clone Wars and has seen several other stories broaden the character’s history.

But a group of fans wanted to do Darth Maul a little more justice by crafting an impressive fan film. In Darth Maul: Apprentice, the Sith trainee must keep his training base a secret by dispatching with any Jedi Knights who happen to stumble upon his secret hideout where he’s learning the ways of the dark side. As you expect, some pretty amazing lightsaber fights ensue.

The visual effects used to create lightsabers aren’t nearly as hard as they used to be, but they’re still pretty well done here. However, it’s the choreography of the fights that really sets this apart from other Star Wars fan films, not to mention the solid cinematography. Honestly, they’re even better than the lightsaber battle that Darth Maul participated in against Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace, though maybe not quite as good as the battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith.

Darth Maul: Apprentice took these fans about two years to make, and you can see how they pulled it off right here:

Let us know what you think of this Darth Maul fan film in the comments.